


In The Path Of Glory

by FujurPreux



Category: Predator Series, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-21
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2019-02-04 22:06:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12780549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FujurPreux/pseuds/FujurPreux
Summary: Before the start of Transformers: Prime, Megatron is out there looking for Dark Energon. As he does, he stumbles into a group of relentless hunters.





	In The Path Of Glory

Megatron had once more set his path in pursuit of what others deemed impossible. This time, he heeded the advice of cryptic clues found in half-forgotten archives, all of them buried underneath the ruins of a barren planet. His own barren planet. That he had been the one to cause such destruction did not seem to bother him. It hadn't back then either, as he led his army to either openly or covertly fight the Autobots, burning anything on his path. They had earned it, the Senate and their lackeys, for getting in the way of his destiny. He still had to reach it, but he would get there; all of this had been but a detour.

To obtain Unicron's blood was a way to put him back on track. A way to exact his revenge on Optimus, a servant of Primus, in the most ironic and humiliating of ways.

At first, as he had expected, Megatron's search took him to a series of dead ends, many of them in hostile territory. But the gladiator turned warlord blasted his way through them with ease, taking joy from his actions.

The latest thread led him to a moon whose inhabitants had traded with Cybertron eons ago. According to data Megatron gathered on his way, their civilization continued to thrive in peace, their cities becoming even more splendid than any of the images found in the old archives. Which was why Megatron felt so surprised when he landed in a landscape that had more in common with the current state of Cybertron than with the images described by the transmissions he picked up along the way.

Megatron walked through the ruins and the charred corpses—a disgusting side effect of carbon-based lifeforms— as he appraised the situation. He didn't care to find out what had happened nor why. His focus was on who since he already knew how.

He intended to reach the palace where the locals had built a statue in their likeness of their then king and the Cybertronian Ambassador. From what Megatron had been able to put together, a dissatisfied Cybertronian worker from that era hid a shard of Dark Energon inside the base. Authorities caught this worker later indulging in other kind of contraband and thus, he was tried and disposed of. In a diplomatic move, since statues were important for this society and so this one remained intact, no one acknowledged the information about the shard. Therefore, the incident hadn't broken the relationship between Megatron's home planet and this moon. The cause of that had been Megatron himself—and his war.

Furthermore, perhaps one could say the battle between Decepticons and Autobots had contributed to this carnage, Megatron thought as his steps echoed through the destroyed streets. Had they remained close allies, the Cybertronians would have had the obligation to send help if help was requested. However, as this planet was from where the Cybertronian leaders had copied the idea of circus games and gladiators, Megatron couldn't say he felt any regret. Not that he would otherwise, even when his popularity in the games had helped him to rise to power.

People on this planet had the reputation of being fierce and most of then knew how to fight. Yet, here they were, charred and broken because of a deliberate explosion, one strong enough to destroy everything and everyone. Having perpetrated many attacks of this kind himself, to recognize them was easy. Of this kind, yes, but not of this magnitude. No matter how hard he tried, Megatron was unable to detect any life signal in the entire planet.

It was imperative to find out the perpetrator's identity. If this being remained in the area and was able to do it again, Megatron might not make it out unscathed. Which only added to the fun.

The epicenter turned out to be the same place Megatron looked for. He made a click-like noise with his mouth. The once proud statue, along with the pedestal and the palace behind it, was now infinitesimal pieces of rubble. Megatron knelt down and scattered some with his hands. No sign of any shard of Energon, Dark or otherwise.

However, now that he paid attention to this frequency, he detected particles of Energon-like energy.

_Could it be?_

It certainly could have amplified whatever explosive had been used it could raze the entire moon and not just the city. Even the one who had done it would have been taken by surprise, and therefore unable to escape.

Megatron dug further into the rubble looking for evidence of who had been there. After some time, he got lucky: under the Cybertronian Ambassador's leg he found a helmet with the head still inside. He recognized the creature immediately, even if this was the first time he had ever encountered one of them first hand.

"Yautja," he whispered to the ruins as he stared at the helmet he held between the tip of his fingers. Now he understood what had transpired in this place.

The creature's hunt had gone awry, which prompted the hunter to self-destruct along with everything around him to preserve his honor. This might as well mean the end of it. Yet, if this had been a youngling, a ship with his elders could arrive in any moment, which could be a problem. After all, he had become interested in this species because of their ritualistic hunting habits. Megatron knew that, once his fame as a warrior spread through the universe, he would become a target.

The question was if he had enough time to waste on this. He wanted to take off the planet to resume his search for the Dark Energon. Now that he had a confirmation about its existence out of Cybertron, he was in a hurry to actually find it.

But as he thought about it, it became too late: a Yautja ship appeared on the sky and descended at the entrance of the city. No way he could take off undetected now.

"Fine. If this is how it was going to be," he murmured as he transformed his right hand into a cannon.

Then, he prepared himself and waited.

 

*

 

Interesting how sometimes people get what they want but not exactly how they had planned it.

One downside of a forged-in universal translator was that the ability to understand what others said, and the leader of the three Yautja had some choice words for Megatron.

The group walked in and scanned the area, looking for their fallen comrade. Being so much taller than them, Megatron was hard to miss. All the Yautja stopped to looked up at him and the one in the middle spoke.

"Strange. This drone seems active and in one piece," he said.

This drone?

_Drone?_

"How dare you call me a drone, you sack of meat!" Megatron bellowed as he threw a blast from his cannon right at the Yautja's face. "I am Megatron! Leader of the Decepticons! Terror of the Autobots! And I will be respected!"

What was left of the creature splattered against what was left of a wall. The others reached for their weapons, but Megatron lacked interest in giving them a fair chance. He kept shooting at them, forcing them to scatter and turn on their invisibility cloak.

He grinned. "Like that will make any difference," he said and turned on his other scanners.

As he did, he felt a small object impact his right leg. A magnetic bomb. He ripped it off with the tip of his fingers and threw it up. It exploded above Megatron's head, above the zone where the Dark Energon particles still floated, so it had not been a particularly flashy explosion.

"Is that all?"

Then, he felt a net sticking to his back. An electro-magnetic pulse surged throughout him, making him fall on one knee. Megatron forced his arm to move and pull the net. It hurt. Every spike he ripped off from his body stung and shook him to the core.

But he had gone through worse kinds of pain.

"Good," he growled once he was done.

Before he stood up he threw the net to the left, where he had detected the closest Yautja. It hit the mark. The energy still coursing through its components fried the Yautja's cloak and left it shaking on the ground. While this happened, Megatron shot several blasts, smaller than the one before, to the right. He hit the creature on the third try, on the shoulder, the one where he carried his cannon. The now detached arm flew away and fell to the ground several meters ahead of its previous owner who, despite the blood loss, sprinted toward it.

"Useless meat sack," Megatron grumbled as he strolled toward it to hit him with a final blast before the Yautja could even touch it. Then, he turned around and returned to the last of the creatures. "Now, what do I do with you?" He scratched his chin as he pretended to think. "I'm feeling generous today. I'll spare you so you can let others of your kind know about— _What are you doing?_ "

The Yautja had deactivated the net and was pushing buttons in a bracelet he wore on his wrist. He cackled as the countdown began.

"You, treacherous…! "Megatron roared the worst profanities he knew and stepped on the Yautja, crushing the body with his heel, both deactivating the bomb and getting organic material all over his foot.

"Disgusting," he mumbled soon after, when he tried to clean it up. "I'm never doing this again."

With nothing else to do there, he took off from the moon after his next lead in a neighboring solar system. He couldn't deny he felt disappointed with himself. He had been so preoccupied with the war he had forgotten to create a reputation for himself outside the Cybertronian sphere of influence. But he would do it. Right after he finished with Optimus.

When it came to Megatron's priorities, Optimus always came first.

**Author's Note:**

> I might write a sequel set after Predacons Rising. 
> 
> Might. :P


End file.
